Probers: Hostage crisis may have been ‘underestimated, misread’

The local crisis management committee (CMC) handling the August 23 hostage crisis may have belittled the seriousness of the situation, and therefore, had not expected that it would quickly turn into a bloody shootout where eight Hong Kong tourists were killed, members of the five-member body probing the incident said Friday. Justice Secretary Leila De Lima, head of the Incident Investigation and Review Committee (IIRC), said officials who handled the hostage crisis last week may have “underestimated" and “misread" the incident. “It looks like there was an underestimation of the gravity of the situation. It is a crisis, yet they thought there was nothing happening," she said. “There was a crisis, kaya nga may [that’s why there’s a] crisis management committee. There should be a correct mindset among people handling the crisis that any time, anything can go wrong," she added. De Lima made this statement after Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim repeatedly said during the first day of the inquiry on Friday that he and officials thought the situation would end peacefully — the reason why he left the Quirino Grandstand area even after the hostage-taker, dismissed police officer Rolando Mendoza, already fired a “warning shot." 'When Mendoza tires out' Lim, head of the CMC, insisted that he thought “nothing was happening" when he left, and told police officials that the hostage-taking incident might last until the next day when Mendoza tires out. Earlier, Manila Police District head Rodolfo Magtibay also said he had no idea that Mendoza would turn the hijacking and abduction into a shooting rampage, resulting in the deaths of the hostages. Lim said Magtibay too might have “underappreciated the facts" of the hostage crisis. “Sa palagay po ni Magtibay, akala niya walang mangyayari (Magtibay had thought nothing would happen)," he said. Lim said that he and Magtibay were in a nearby restaurant to “discuss the pros and cons" of granting Mendoza’s demand for reinstatement in the police force when the hostage-taker started the rampage at 7:45 p.m. (See: Key officials not in hostage area when shooting began) "Kung minsan po, ang layman's point of view ng mga tao ay kakaiba dun sa line of thinking ng mga police operatives (Sometimes, the layman’s point of view among the public is different from that of police operatives). First and foremost, you cannot take it from them [the policemen] that they did their best. But their best was not enough," Lim, head of the CMC, told the five-member review committee. To which, De Lima replied: “Obviously, that was not good enough. That is why there's a crisis management committee and a SWAT team. There was probably an underestimation and misreading of the situation." In the morning of August 23, Mendoza hijacked the Hong Thai Travel bus carrying 25 people, mostly Hong Kong Tourists, demanding his reinstatement into the police force and his pending case at the Ombudsman dismissed. Throughout the day, he released nine hostages, including Filipinos, and had even allowed food to be brought in for the remaining hostages. It is believed that Mendoza became agitated when he saw a live broadcast of his brother, also a policeman, being handcuffed and bodily carried at a nearby police community precinct. Lim left during ‘critical’ time Other members of the investigating panel similarly questioned Lim’s decision to leave the Quirino Grandstand area where the hijacked bus was parked, even after an obviously “agitated" Mendoza fired his first shot, apparently in the direction of the negotiators and interpreted as a “warning shot." “Before you left [the area], there was already an altercation. Isn’t that a sign that something has to be done? The guy was already agitated," said Roan Libarios, a member of the review committee and Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) governor for Eastern Mindanao. The fact that both Lim and Magtibay were not in the area when the hostage-taker started shooting the hostages was a clear indication that there was a “misappreciation" of the situation, Libarios added. “The critical moment happened the moment you left the scene," Lim was told by another IIRC member, Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas president Herman Basbaño. —JV/HGS, GMANews.TV